Oligosaccharides are widely known to have benefical health effects. They are classified into homooligosaccharides such as xylooligosaccharide, maltooligosaccharide and inulooligosaccharide, and heterooligosaccharides such as fructooligosaccharide, galactooligosaccharide, soybeenoligosaccharide, raffinose and palatinose. Thus, they are thought to selectively increase bifidobacteria, 1) enhance immune responses, 2) promote the absorption of minerals, 3) and more recently, prevent diseases such as a heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes and osteoporosis.Palatinose is produced by treatment of sucrose with Protaminobacter rubrum, 4) and is used in various foods as sweeteners not causing dental caries. 5) Although palatinose is hydrolyzed more slowly than sucrose, this saccharide is finally absorbed in the small intestine. Changing this saccharide into a non digestible oligosaccharide is useful to improve the function.In recent years, the synthesis of oligosaccharides having various functions has been actively performed. These oligosaccharides are mostly synthesized using hydrolases and glycosyltransferases. The phosphorylases belonging to glycosyltransferases are also expected to give good results due to their reversible reaction, although there have been few studies.We have previously studied the production of indigestible oligosaccharides such as inulooligosaccharide, 6,7) fructooligosaccharide, 8) fructosylxyloside 9) and fructosyllactosucrose 10) using Penicillium purpurogenum inulinase,Scopulariopsis brevicaulis fructosyltransferase 8,9) and asparagus 1 F fructosyltransferase. 10 12) These oligosaccharides were shown to suppress the rise of serum glucose and insulin responses in rats, 13) and serum cholesterol 14) and triacylglycerol 15) in humans, and to have prebiotic effects. 15,16) Recently, our studies have involved the synthesis of novel oligosaccharides elongated with one, two or three additional glucose units by glucosyltransfer from β D glucose 1 phosphate to isokestose, nystose, 17) raffinose and stachyose 18) using Thermoanaerobacter brockii kojibiose phosphorylase. Now, we report the structural analysis and functional analysis of two novel oligosaccharides synthesized by glucosyltransfer from β D glucose 1 phosphate to palatinose using kojibiose phosphorylase.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Saccharides.Crystalline palatinose (O α D glucopyranosyl (1 6) D fructofuranose) were purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd., Osaka, Japan. Kojibiose and β D glucose 1 phosphate (β D G1P) were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO, USA).Enzyme. Kojibiose phosphorylase was purified from a cell free extract of T. brockii ATCC 35047.
19)High performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC). The oligosaccharides was analyzed using a Dionex Bio LC Series apparatus equipped with a carbohydrate column (Carbo Pack PA 1, inert styrene divinylbenzene polymer) and a pulsed amperometric detector (PAD). 20,21) The mobile phase consisted of eluent A (150 mM NaOH) with a sodium acetate gradient as follows: 0 J. A...